124 HOW TO MAKE A COUNTRY PLACE 



makes the blood surge and tingle, putting one in fine fettle for 

 wrestling with the day's work. 



The Rest Room. 



Over the coachman's nook on the same floor is a writing or rest 

 room with fireplace, reached from the house by the pergolad outdoor 

 gym., a place to pull tired nerves into alignment, a room theoretically 

 a luxury, but in reality a necessity. 



v 



Porte Cochere Fireplace. 



Supporting the portals of Hillcrest House were grouped a half 

 score of massive stone arches, framing a broad porch room, as shown 

 in the accompanying photographs, from which a large area of 

 countryside is visible. At the outer side of the porte cochere was 

 built a high arched inglenook with a six foot wide stone fireplace, stone 

 settles and recessed windows, intended as a waiting shelter for those 

 who serve. Folk-lore has it that during the Revolution the Father 

 of our Country was concealed over night in a cave less than three 

 miles across lots from Hillcrest Manor. Whether the statement is 

 true or false, its underlying sentiment coupled with our require- 

 ments caused us to transport by a double yoke of cattle a flat 

 stone from the mouth of this cave to the fireplace-ingle in the 

 coachman's nook, where today it serves as a settle as it may have 

 served our first president. 



Hero of New England's Dark Day. 



We are on historic ground, for on the slope of the hill 

 yonder lived Abraham Davenport, that hero who, when New Eng- 

 land's dark day to the Puritan mind threatened the wrath of God, 

 rose amid his trembling fellow legislators in the council hall at Hart- 

 ford and in the words of New England's poet of the hills said : 



' 'Let God do His work, we will do ours; 

 Bring in the candles.' .... 

 A witness to the ages as they pass 

 That simple duty has no place for fear." 



Putnam's Ride. 



Across the valley we see Put's Hill, down which General Israel 

 Putnam was pictured in our school books as recklessly urging his 

 galloping steed while the pursuing English halted at the edge 

 of the steep declivity. In the foreground is the plain 'cross which he 

 dashed to safety, while just west of the hill is the stone chimney of 

 the inn where he was eating when interrupted by his unwelcome 

 callers. We are also but a short mile from Fort Nonsense, thrown 

 up by the same rash and impetuous Putnam in face of querulous criti- 

 cism on account of its useless location. 



